ARE THE "LOW DOSES" TRUE LOW?

Abstract

The article states that the Chernobyl accident caused only a quantitative change in the pre-existing spectrum of radiobiological problems in the direction of increasing attention to the theoretical and practical issues of the effect of chronic ionizing radiation on biological objects of different levels of structural and functional organization. It is believed that chronic radiation influences biological objects in the so-called "low doses", the quantitative measure of which, however, is determined by subjectively chosen criteria. The article considers two main aspects of the problem of "low doses": firstly, to establish a relationship between these doses and subthreshold doses and, secondly, to show the role of heterogeneous tropism of biological structures in relation to their ability to absorb radionuclides from the environment, which contributes to the formation of uneven dose loads.